SS2 Classic-Styled Rebirth Midwives

[66491fcb4b8b3Paynamia]

It took almost twelve hours, a couple of tutorials, a help thread and the assistance of a Blender community addon developer, but my first modification for System Shock 2 is ready for release!

This model is meant to address some of the elements of the Rebirth midwife model that bugged me the most: the face and hair. The geometry of the face didn't match the texture (if you use the updated versions of Rebirth, that is), and the hair was a boring bun instead of the iconic bob. So, I opted to make said changes myself, modelling new hair and reshaping the face to be more... well, torn-off. That's right, no more Schrödinger's nose!

This is based off of the model included in CyberBlutch Rebirth 05a, and as such is done on top of any modifications that may have been made to the model over the years. It also includes ZylonBane's Oldschool Midwife textures, so that this addon can be used with any version of Rebirth, as they are necessary (or at least the head is).

Here's a Google Drive mirror, in case the attachment expires: Download

[66491fcb4bc1cvoodoo47]

because all mods have to be quality checked and deemed good to go first, and only then are moved into the mods subforum by a moderator.

in this case, something went wrong with your fembot.cal, resulting in dwarfism. can be fixed by simply using the original Rebirth fembot.cal, but not really an expert on AI meshes, so not sure whether this is safe (but joints look fine, and everything seems to be moving as it should when ingame).

using the original fembot.cal reveals that her thighs have become thinner right above the knees, and the hand cable is bent in a different way (compare vanilla_vanilla with vanilla_classic), while probably not vastly important, it'd be nice to have this fixed. good job on the face though.
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[vanilla_classic.jpg expired]
[vanilla_vanilla.jpg expired]

[66491fcb4bdc8Paynamia]

Oh, hell. I didn't notice her looking so short in my game. Well, whatever happened here occurred somewhere in the process of converting the Rebirth meshes back to .3ds files, because the issue with the cable is present in my working copy, I just hadn't noticed. I'll try to convert it again and see if I can't get a proper mesh exported, but if I can't, the best I'll be able to manage most likely will be manually stretching it and hoping for the best, since I won't have a proper guide for the proportions.

EDIT: Damn it, I think I know what happened. I only have a biped mapping file for Thief 2, and her proportions fit a Thief 2 biped, at least in Blender. If this is the case, I don't know what I could possibly do to fix it.

[66491fcb4bf7cvoodoo47]

I think the model is technically good to go when combined with the original fembot.cal, but it would be nice to have those thighs fixed (or rather, not altered. same goes for the hand) - right now, the choice is either improper face and hair with the original Rebirth model, or fixed hair and face but with both thighs slightly broken with the new one.

let me know whether you plan to work on this some more - in the meantime, maybe someone will pitch in with some advice.

[66491fcb4c07ePaynamia]

Well, things seem to be okay now. I have no idea what went wrong before, but I just converted the original rebirth model again, and it's not warped this time. It should just be a matter of porting over the changes and planes.

[66491fcb4c1e8voodoo47]

nice - just finished capturing the issue, so might as well post it anyway;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctKu3Y4CEv0
orig model on the left, the right model will switch from the altered thighs to proper after a few seconds.

[66491fcb4c356Paynamia]

Thigh stride, lol.

First post is updated with a new file and new screenshots. She's taller, she doesn't have any weird, stretched or overlapping faces anymore, and she looks like she's ready to dunk on some fools.

I couldn't do a side-by-side comparison, like voodoo47 has, because I don't know how, and also, my editor is apparently broken. I apparently need to reinstall it altogether.

[66491fcb4c593voodoo47]

the tool will install a properly set up editor for you, and learning your way around for a bit is highly recommended, unless this was meant just as a one off deal (I've renamed your model files to cfembot.bin and cfembot.cal, activated the mod, opened the editor, created a midwife, then created another one, and changed the model on the second one to cfembot by assigning it the shape/model name prop with the custom name to create the side-by-side comparison).

anyway, the model looks spot on now, so I'll let it cool down for a day, and then move the topic to the mods subforum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2dSYop4-JQ

also, there's a bunch of AI mesh related requests over at Engineering, in case you would be interested in this type of work..

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=6655
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=11334


and I'd actually consider this a bugfix, so I see no reason why the fixed model shouldn't be integrated into Rebirth - unless you would want to keep it standalone. let me know.

[66491fcb4c97bPaynamia]

and I'd actually consider this a bugfix, so I see no reason why the fixed model shouldn't be integrated into Rebirth - unless you would want to keep it standalone. let me know.

I'd be more than happy with that. Oh, and if any changes need to be made for any reason, I've also updated the drive link from the first post of my other thread with the newest version of the .3ds file used for this, to hopefully make things easier.

[66491fcb4ca78voodoo47]

ah yes, including that is a good idea. I'll pack everything up and upload soon.

[66491fcb4cbeeZylonBane]

This reminds me, I should revisit that texture so the skin isn't so white. Even the original Midwife has a bit of color to her.

[66491fcb4ccd6voodoo47]

should I wait before repacking Rebirth 5b, or is this a soonish kind of situation?

[66491fcb4cdf6voodoo47]

I think I'll put together the new Rebirth package this weekend (still have to test the Secmod package integration), let me know whether you plan to fix that texture up if possible.

[66491fcb4cedbZylonBane]

Not even slightly soonish.

[66491fcb4d2acRocketMan]

It occurred to me that as long as Rebirth is all about high poly models and since we've adulterated the original version pretty thoroughly with additions, subtractions, edits, etc. don't you think we should put all high poly AI meshes into it so they don't have to live as separate mods?  The droid, Bloome model and Turnbull prototype would seem appropriate candidates.  I'd say if Rebirth is being accepted as a work in progress and not the 1.0 we were initially given then the aformentioned deserve to be in there more than that shitty cyborg assassin.  Which reminds me, put the GerMany assassin in there in its place.

[66491fcb4d3d0voodoo47]

no, because all the models in one pack having the same artistic style is preferable, imho (good example - Christine's missions have custom living AIs, while the models are ok, they are very immersion breaking, as they look nothing like the vanilla models. or Rebirth, for that matter. so higher res/poly is not always better). also, not too fond of the pajamas assassin.

[66491fcb4d565RocketMan]

But E.A.'s original models are no longer intact.  We've already messed with them and added our own stuff so it's already a hodgepodge of artistic influences.  Speaking for myself, every time I download Rebirth, I have to mess around with it for a while to undo some of the changes.  It would actually be easier for me if all the changes from V2 to V5 were offered as separate mods.  I believe we made such an argument to a certain forum member regarding mod packs recently.  However since that wasn't the direction it went, I'm just suggesting something that maintains consistency. 

Either it's a WIP pack, which is what it is now, and changes are discretionary, in which case I don't see how a high poly droid would screw that up, or it should be a V1 with several discrete add-on mods to augment it, allowing maximum flexibility, which is what we've advocated elsewhere.

[66491fcb4d720voodoo47]

all v3+ changes were either bugfixes, or additions that made sure Rebirth models would be used for all the humanoid AIs (in the main game, at least) - because as mentioned, seeing both the vanilla models and the Rebirth models at the same time is undesirable. plus the Rebirthified gore, for the same reason - no idea why anyone would NOT want that.

anyway, flexibility is a good thing, but only to a certain degree - so mixing a bunch of mods into a modpack (I'm guessing you are referring to the ESnumeros guy) is not good, because (as mentioned a couple thousand times), it takes away the option to choose what one really wants (and also outdated stuff, conflicts and errors etc), however, splitting a mod that represents a logical compilation of resources of the same kind into a dozen minimods just to keep every single one of them separate to allow absolute freedom isn't that great either. especially for the average Joe that just wants to load the recommended stuff and start his journey. that's why I'm planning to simplify the Secmod addon situation - having extra addons for mods and their addons is not ideal.

special requests can always be handled via forum support (like when people sometimes want to restore the original midwife skin - guess it's hard to get excited when the thing has no face).

[66491fcb4d873RocketMan]

I can appreciate the challenges and trade-offs you're talking about.  I see all sorts of gray areas where you need to come down on one side or the other.  Just wanted to add an opinion on this because while you're right, it is a PITA to have a million minimods and the mod is a logical compilation of similar materials, that's also why I mentioned the droid at least because it's so difficult to take creative license on that model that it tends to have a "same but better" look and when the E.A. midwife has been severely altered already, I find there's inconsistency.

...but this is not my thread to derail so I apologize for that.

[66491fcb4d965voodoo47]

sure.

I'll wrap up with saying that bots, unlike the humanoids, don't look that dated, and generally work ok with any AI mesh mod, so I don't feel pressured to tinker with them.